Batteries, A Spider Case, And An HD Media Player

Kingmax wants to become an independent manufacturer of batteries for cell phones. For example, on photo you can see rechargeable lithium-ion batteries for Nokia phones.

Here we have a mini-ITX open chassis from Lian Li, the model PC-T1. Gigabyte was using this case for showcasing its mini-ITX motherboards.

Asus also was showing off a new HD media player called the O!Play HD2. I was impressed by previous players in the O!Play HD series (HDP-R1 and HDP-R3), so my attention was immediately grabbed by this model. It has an internal hard drive and WiFi/Ethernet support, so you can use the player as NAS.

Unlike many other HD players, the O!Play HD2 has a full suite of card reader slots: CF, SD, SD+MMC, and MS Duo. The player also supports USB 3.0 for connection to a PC, making file transfers between hard drives significant faster. Additional details about formats supported will be available when the player hits the market.

Wow, some good stuff. However, I find it odd that Intel did(will?) not add USB3 support on the LGA 1155 platform. Maybe saving it for Light Peak? Next, I really liked that SSD exhibit w/ 1 in hot water and 1 in ice. Also, how the hell will ASUS keep a 5770 cool with that puny heatsink? The sad thing is, you gotta sift through the crap and gimmicks to get to the good stuff.

So is Intel never going to support USB3? Haswell's after Sandy Bridge, but that's not out till 2013. I'm going to agree with Eugenester that Intel's just going wait until their Light Peak tech's ready.

Open chassis cases are not at all practical. While it may look cool there are several disadvantages. Dust will settle on the motherboard as there are no filters, you can cut your finger bad on CPU fans and heat-sink fins (so can pets, and a child can get burned on the heat-sink as well). Not to mention someone could spill a drink on it, and the static sensitive parts are exposed.

If you're going to build a nice rig, it seems it would make sense to protect it. I would rather just have a plain computer workbench for piecing together a system prior to dropping it into a case. Use a clear case if you want to put your components on display.

ashkajiSeriously. If I want babes I have a plithora of websites that'll spam me with tatas. I wana know about the tech!

No kidding. The booth "babes" really are just that. Babies...children. When I was 24 I was probably already too old to be dating any of them. Some of us realize differences in maturity and don't spend all our time being lustful - there is actually more to great sex than just looks (try a personal connection with someone local who you can actually get to know) and if the sad people who photograph young teenage girls and put them on display for other sad people would just realize this they may actually be able to get a woman and hold onto her. Think a bit deeper than the exterior, don't you think our society is superficial enough? Once a guy can get past the immature sexual discovery years they will hopefully realize that there is so much more to life than obsessing about putting your stick in a hole. i.e. obsessing about amazing leaps forward in science and tech.

I'm not saying its wrong to think about sex, but maybe next time instead of taking so many pictures of silly girls you could snap more photos of what the show is actually ABOUT and lead with THAT.

Alkaline battery charger, great idea. But I hope that after 20 charges the alkaline battery fails to take a charge, as opposed to catching fire or exploding.

What happens if you put rechargeable batteries in it? Does it use more electricity to recharge the batteries than a normal rechargeable battery? I thought that alkaline batteries had good output but were more resistant to taking a charge? How does a recharged alkaline compare in output power (i.e. will it reproduce proper voltage) and will the batteries run as long per charge compared to a higher end rechargeable battery? I'm all for being environmentally friendly but if it requires burning more coal at a power plant to recharge one it might be better to just recycle your batteries if new ones perform much more optimally. Speaking of which - I would MUCH rather see recycling programs take a real hold here in America for electronic wastes than for a device like this - as this only pertains to one type of electronic tech. Electronics have so many valuable and toxic metals in them.

It would be great to have broad recycling done right for once, I think the government is so busy addressing other issues all the time that our politicians have failed to properly implement local, state, and federal recycling programs. We could really use statewide and/or nationwide recycling programs! Where I live we have NONE. Heck, get the U.N. to implement some sort of global recycling initiative. Cut back on oil demand and spills, and pollution/cancer rates. Slash our thirst for new metals and mining...and actually be a bit nicer to our environment while reducing our need for new resources. Why bury so many good materials in landfills and pollute our oceans and streams? I just don't get why this hasn't been more of a front burner. We've had recycling capability for over thirty years, but its still small scale.

JonnydoughNo kidding. The booth "babes" really are just that. Babies...children. When I was 24 I was probably already too old to be dating any of them. Some of us realize differences in maturity and don't spend all our time being lustful - there is actually more to great sex than just looks (try a personal connection with someone local who you can actually get to know) and if the sad people who photograph young teenage girls and put them on display for other sad people would just realize this they may actually be able to get a woman and hold onto her. Think a bit deeper than the exterior, don't you think our society is superficial enough? Once a guy can get past the immature sexual discovery years they will hopefully realize that there is so much more to life than obsessing about putting your stick in a hole. i.e. obsessing about amazing leaps forward in science and tech. I'm not saying its wrong to think about sex, but maybe next time instead of taking so many pictures of silly girls you could snap more photos of what the show is actually ABOUT and lead with THAT.Lead with innovation and not with your...Now if only GM CEOs had done that.

*applauds wisdom*

On a side note, this is going to be another great year for our technological world! Looking forward to it,

Let's see, LGA1366 has lasted (short-term memory loss), what about - oh wait, hey! Oh nevermind.On the otherhand the AM2 platform has lasted all the way from the rampaging Athlon 64 to the Phenom II X6!The number of cores on it has sextupled (bet you never heard that from intel) from the Athlon 64 to the Phenom II X6.

The alkaline charger is not even close to a new thing, I had an alkaline charger 10 years ago from the real goods store. It charged nicads and alkalines but that was before the nimh charger was common so it couldn't charge those. We usually got 15 charges out of an alkaline battery as long as it wasn't completely dead, the major downfall to alkalines is that the more you charge them the more likely they are to leak. Back then the charger cost us about 80 bucks but it saved us enough money to pay for itself quite quickly.

What's with the bashing on booth babes? Taking picture of pretty girls != thinking about sex. Some of us like to see pretty girls, that is all. Why do people subscribe to playboy or maxim or even Victoria's secret? Do they then not have a life?